11 questions about NCM 2019 answered
With only 11 weeks to go until we meet in New York City, here are 11 things you may be wondering about the Nanopore Community Meeting (and 11 reasons we’d love to see you there):
- Surely you can’t assemble a 32 Gb Giant Redwood genome… can you?
Steven Salzberg (Johns Hopkins University) is the man for the job. A pioneer in bioinformatics tools for next-generation sequencing, including BowTie and TopHat, Steven will describe how he’s now using long nanopore reads to sequence and assemble “the mega-genomes of mega-trees”.
- What’s happening at the cutting edge?
From transcriptomics to microbiology to modification detection, speakers from the vibrant Nanopore Community will be presenting how they’re using nanopore sequencing – in an ever-expanding range of applications and locations.
- How is nanopore sequencing enabling clinical research into organ compatibility?
The answer is in both DNA and RNA. Andrew Beggs (University of Birmingham) will introduce how nanopore DNA sequencing, from amplicons to whole genomes, is informing HLA typing (and we may see some data from brand-new pore R10, too). Meanwhile, Eric Weimer (University of North Carolina) will present how he’s using cDNA sequencing to correlate HLA genotyping with donor HLA expression.
- What’s new and what’s next for Oxford Nanopore?
Lots. In a year that’s seen the launch of new kits, tech and tools, we have many updates to share; Sissel Juul (Director of Genomic Applications, Oxford Nanopore) will be presenting her team’s latest projects, including their new insights into chromatin conformation with Pore-C.
- Can CRISPR/Cas9 really capture an entire gene – in 90 minutes?
Yes: Shruti Iyer (Cold Spring Harbor/ Stony Brook University) has used PCR-free CRISPR/Cas9 to enrich for the BRCA1 gene – and sequence it end-to-end in a single long read. Don’t miss Shruti’s talk, in which she’ll present her work developing targeted sequencing strategies to study complex, cancer-associated genomic regions.
- How long does it take to prepare a sample for nanopore sequencing?
As little as ten minutes – we’ll prove it live in our demos, along with showing our sequencing devices in action, from the tiny Flongle to the very high-throughput PromethION, and our real-time analysis.
- Where can I learn how to load a flow cell?
Grab a pipette at one of our Flow Cell Loading Clinics for a step-by-step, hands-on guide. We’ll also be running Technical Clinics throughout the two days, where you can discuss your projects in detail with Oxford Nanopore scientists.
- What’s for breakfast?
That’ll be Data for Breakfast: start the day with our bioinformatics session to find out about the latest tools for analysing long nanopore reads.
- And where’s dinner?
We’ll be rounding off day one with a dinner at our venue, featuring an evening speaker (TBC) followed up by live music.
- What’s a speakeasy doing at a Nanopore conference?
The Speakeasy session is one of many networking opportunities throughout NCM, where you can meet others in your area of research from around the world, swap notes and start collaborations.
- How long does it take to get to the Empire State Building?
We make it eleven minutes by public transport. Our venue is in buzzing Manhattan in the festive season - we hope to see you there.
You can register to attend NCM 2019 here. Register by 27th September for a ticket at the limited price of $650. After 27th tickets will be available at the standard price of $749.